It was first announced in the journal PNAS that the discovered fossils reportedly range from a dark blood red to a deep purple, when diluted these become bright pink. These pigments are more than half a billion years older than the previous pigments that were discovered. Grad student Nur Gueneli at Australian National University realized she found something special after mixing the powdered material with an organic solvent. Researchers say that these bright pink pigments are molecular fossils of chlorophyll.

The pigments found were produced by photosynthetic organisms that inhabited an ancient ocean.

"I remember I heard this screaming in the lab", Jochen Brocks, senior author on the paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tells Henriques-Gomes. "Which helps to explain why animals did not exist at the time".

We know surprisingly little about what the Earth might have been like a billion (or more) years ago. The researchers ground up the shale and were able to isolate the pigment that was present in the bacteria, noting that it shines a brilliant pink when held up to sunlight. The discovery of the ancient bright pink, however, can change this narrative. Some researchers have found evidence that oxygen concentrations on Earth, most created by cyanobacteria, just weren't high enough to support life until that point, which would explain why life stayed single-cell for so long.

"[It provided] the burst of energy needed for the evolution of complex ecosystems, where large animals, including humans, could thrive on Earth", he said. The analysis confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria-a type of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis-dominated the base of the food chain in Earth's early oceans, billions of years ago.

"Algae, although still microscopic, are a thousand times larger in volume than cyanobacteria, and are a much richer food source", said Brocks, who works in the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

While our planet is 4.6 billion years old, these animal-like beasts and other large things like seaweed emerged only 600 million years ago, he told The Guardian.

Popular news

Leicester's Kasper Schmeichel interesting Chelsea and Roma
Real Madrid are hot on the trail of Courtois, with Paris Saint Germain looking set to land Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon. The goalkeeper is now representing Belgium at the World Cup as the Red Devils' No 1 in Russian Federation .

Samsung to launch Galaxy S10 Plus with five cameras
We can see that the top bezel keeps the front facing camera, iris scanner, and other sensors in the same place as the Note 8 . A Korean news site called The Bell and Ice Universe have referred to the alleged new S10s as Beyond 0, Beyond 1 and Beyond 2.

Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid to join Italian club Juventus
Ronaldo requested to be let go from Real Madrid , ESPN reports , but his old employers seem gracious about his departure. He also won four of his five FIFA Ballon d'Or awards while wearing a Real Madrid kit - in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017.

Sei Young Kim sets 54-hole mark at 24 under at LPGA…
She was ranked as high as number eight in the world previous year after her win in Mexico and has struggled for much of 2018. Kim actually has a 27 under par total for 72 holes which she recorded when winning the JTBC Founders Cup in 2016.

Fakhar Zaman turning into a big-match player for Pakistan
Fakhar and Malik both build up a terrific 107 run partnership and completely shifted the momentum towards the World No.1 T20 side. No wonder he moved up 44 spots on the table to reach No 2 with 842 points, also the best in his short worldwide career so far.

Joaquin Phoenix now officially confirmed as Joker
Reports suggest that this will be quite a low budget movie too, with a price around the $50-60m mark. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Joaquin will begin shooting the movie in NY in September.